Maud Humphrey

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Busy Sewing and New Ebay Listings

This past week I sewed twelve doll dresses. Twelve. Granted, they were a simple, sleeveless style, but still. I have been finding quite a few 18" Madame Alexander dolls each time I head out thrifting, and more often than not, they don't have any clothing. I can't put them on Ebay naked--well, I guess I could, but no, just no. I put so much time and effort into cleaning them up and fixing their hair, they just have to have a pretty, new dress to complete the look! So here's the pile of dresses I've completed so far:

You may have noticed I said "so far". Yeah. That's because I've brought home a few more dolls since making these dresses, and now I have to make more! But at least not twelve. Twelve was a big number, even for simple dresses.

Here is a group shot of some of the dolls that I have listed this week on Ebay:

I'm only listing seven of the twelve dolls that are ready because I didn't want to flood the market with too many of the same item. You may notice that there are eight dolls in the photo--the second one in from the right in the back row is an "Elsa" doll, and she already had her original outfit, so I didn't need to sew her anything. Phew.

Here are each of the dolls a little closer up:

2010 Madame Alexander with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Her hair is so thick and pretty.

2012 Madame Alexander--Blonde wavy hair and blue eyes

2013 Madame Alexander--Auburn hair and Brown Eyes

She is one of my favorites.

2010 Madame Alexander--Brunette with Brown Eyes

She has adorable braids and wears probably my favorite dress of all the ones I made.

2012 Madame Alexander--Brunette with Blue Eyes

2009 Madame Alexander--Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes

2011 Madame Alexander--Pale Blonde Wavy Hair & Blue Eyes

Love this one--my favorite face mold of the MA dolls

2014 Madame Alexander ELSA doll from Frozen

This was my first time coming across a "Princess" doll by this doll company. I know they made others, but this is the only one I've ever seen in person. Beautiful face mold, and extra dark drawn-on lashes to accentuate her eyes.

I also have two of the 17" Disney singing Princess dolls listed. The first one is Tiana, from "The Princess and the Frog":

She was naked and horribly messy when I found her. She got a complete spa treatment to get her hair back in shape, and then I made a replica dress to match her original one.

I'm really proud of this dress! I think it turned out so nice. She sings "Almost There" from the movie.

And here is Cinderella:

Luckily, she had her original dress, but her hair had come loose from it's bun. I wound it back up as good as possible and secured it with a rubber band. She sings "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes".

And last but not least, sweet little Rapunzel, a 16" Disney Animator doll:

Rapunzel is my favorite of the animator collection. Her face is just adorable and her hair is so long and silky. She wears her original dress.

I suppose tomorrow I will pick out some fabric in order to sew three more dresses. But first I will need to clean my sewing room. I am a messy seamstress. Seriously. I don't know how it happens, but somehow in the midst of creating, everything ends up on the floor! I'm actually a very neat and tidy person everywhere else, so it always amazes me how my sewing room gets so out of control. I guess that's just how I operate. But I actually like cleaning and organizing, so I'm looking forward to getting everything under control again tomorrow!

Oh My, you certainly have been busy. It takes me about six hours to sew a dress like the ones you make (plus the time to cut the pattern and material). I do believe I have to go back and read every word of this post and pin the pictures of your works of art.

Oh, thank you for the kind words! These dresses don't take me too long since I sew them all at the same time, assembly-line style. I also try to use similar fabrics so that I can use the same thread for all of them. I think cutting out all the fabrics takes almost as long as sewing them!

Unfortunately, I don't have anything listed on Ebay right now--sales during the summer are really bad, so I tend to wait until the fall before I list things in full force again. That said, I am toying with listing a few dolls this coming week, so we'll see!

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About Me

I recently turned the big "50" (gulp!), and have been married for 29 years to the same, wonderful man. I'm a homeschooling mother to eight, interesting children, four of which have graduated and "flown the coop". I'm also a grandma to a sweet toddler boy! There are never enough hours in the day to do all the things I love, but I always try to squeeze in some form of sewing, needlework, photography, or other crafty project. I used to read--a lot--but now I'm lucky if I can get through a few novels a year. As I get older, I am realizing just how quickly the years fly by. Make every moment count, and capture as many as you can in pictures!